Spiritual Direction

What is Spiritual Direction?

How can we define spiritual direction? A helpful definition is to see it as “help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship.” (Cf.: William A. Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction). In the Ignatian tradition particulalry, the spiritual director accpanies the directee to gradually discern for God's presence and consolations in the midst of everyday life. Through spiritual direction, we learn to come into a more wholistic relationship with God, others, and ourselves, and as a result of this, we are given the tools to discern a way of proceeding and making decisions that always leads to the deepening of God's life within us. Spiritual direction is not a form of psychological therapy, nor is it a form of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Rather, it is a time for you to speak to your director about the ways God is at work in your life, and the director's role is to listen and respond, pointing out places where God may be working in ways not yet consciously realized. Both the director and the directee enter spiritual direction in open attentiveness as they together discern for the movements of the Holy Spirit.. 

Finding a Spiritual Director 

At Gesu, some members of our pastoral staff are trained in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola and are prepared to serve as spiritual directors. We also have a pool of trained directors from other Ignatian and Jesuit apostolates who are prepared to serve in this role. Spiritual directors can be ordained clerics and consecrated religious, though the majority of our spiritual directors are lay women and men who have been officially trained and delegated for this important ministry.  What's important is finding a director with whom you are comfortable, and this may take some time as you speak with several potential directors. For more information on how to begin this process, or about spiritual direction in general, please contact Dr. Derrick Witherington who can provide you with a list of potential directors and also assist you in connecting with them.